My Android Experiment

Before I get started I just want to state if you have read my thread Why I switched from an iPhone 4 to a flip phone? This takes place between the time when I sold my iPhone 4 to Gazelle until I bought an iPod Touch and flip phone.

Anyways for almost a month I left Apple (except for my MacBook Air and iTunes) and switched to Android because I no longer had an iPhone and I wanted to check out the other side. Since I didn't want to spend a fortune to see if I like Android I bought the new ZTE Valet from Tracfone on shopcelldeals eBay store. It cost $90 and ran Android 4.1 so I figured this would be a good place to start with Android. Before the phone came I uploaded my iTunes music to the Google Play Music cloud or whatever it's called so I could stream my music on my new phone.

When the phone came setting it up was really easy and before I knew it I had it setup with Tracfone. The keyboard was awesome with swype and the music streaming was smooth. It had all the apps my iPhone 4 had and worked just as good. I really began to think I could switch to an Android phone.

I also decided I didn't want to run the battery down on my phone by streaming my music all the time so I grabbed a 32GB MicroSD card I had lying around and put it in my phone. I then hooked up my phone to my MacBook and downloaded Android File Transfer so I could put my music on my phone. Most of my music went on no problem at least the stuff I got from LimeWire or bought on iTunes after April 7th, 2009 (the day DRM was removed from iTunes music. So of my over 600 songs only around 400 would move to the Android File Transfer. At the time I didn't know why so I went online and learned DRM protected music from iTunes will only work in iTunes and Apple devices.

This definitely soured me liking Android. I then learned of the Nexus 5 coming this fall and how it will receive updates from Android first and has vanilla android with no bloatware. I really liked the sound of this device but remembered the DRM thing and realized no matter how great it might be if I can't play all my music on it forget it. My music not being compatible led to me returning my phone and going back to the Apple ecosystem.

The only way I would try again is if I could figure out how to remove DRM from my music.

Before I get started I just want to state if you have read my thread Why I switched from an iPhone 4 to a flip phone? This takes place between the time when I sold my iPhone 4 to Gazelle until I bought an iPod Touch and flip phone.

Anyways for almost a month I left Apple (except for my MacBook Air and iTunes) and switched to Android because I no longer had an iPhone and I wanted to check out the other side. Since I didn't want to spend a fortune to see if I like Android I bought the new ZTE Valet from Tracfone on shopcelldeals eBay store. It cost $90 and ran Android 4.1 so I figured this would be a good place to start with Android. Before the phone came I uploaded my iTunes music to the Google Play Music cloud or whatever it's called so I could stream my music on my new phone.

When the phone came setting it up was really easy and before I knew it I had it setup with Tracfone. The keyboard was awesome with swype and the music streaming was smooth. It had all the apps my iPhone 4 had and worked just as good. I really began to think I could switch to an Android phone.

I also decided I didn't want to run the battery down on my phone by streaming my music all the time so I grabbed a 32GB MicroSD card I had lying around and put it in my phone. I then hooked up my phone to my MacBook and downloaded Android File Transfer so I could put my music on my phone. Most of my music went on no problem at least the stuff I got from LimeWire or bought on iTunes after April 7th, 2009 (the day DRM was removed from iTunes music. So of my over 600 songs only around 400 would move to the Android File Transfer. At the time I didn't know why so I went online and learned DRM protected music from iTunes will only work in iTunes and Apple devices.

This definitely soured me liking Android. I then learned of the Nexus 5 coming this fall and how it will receive updates from Android first and has vanilla android with no bloatware. I really liked the sound of this device but remembered the DRM thing and realized no matter how great it might be if I can't play all my music on it forget it. My music not being compatible led to me returning my phone and going back to the Apple ecosystem.

The only way I would try again is if I could figure out how to remove DRM from my music.

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Thats Apple screwing you, not Android. You should be soured by Apple.
And just so you know....you can go to the library and check out CD's for free to load on your computer and transfer it to your phone. Takes a bit of an effort i know, and nobody likes to do anythung that takes n effort anymore but its free.

DRM is a horrible thing. It always has been. In this situation, the music being unable to play on the Android phone is 100% Apples fault.

As a consumer, its important to educate yourself about these issues. Until Apple removed the DRM, I refused to buy anything from iTunes; I was still buying CDs and ripping them in 2009. Now I use Google music and have a library of about 12,000 songs that I've purchased over the years, DRM free.

How can I tell if songs have DRM on them because I have switched laptops since I bought those songs and now all my old music has the same added date in iTunes? Does it show it in the songs information?

How can I tell if songs have DRM on them because I have switched laptops since I bought those songs and now all my old music has the same added date in iTunes? Does it show it in the songs information?

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Searching the web with "smart playlist itunes drm" found (among other links) Identifying DRM-protected songs. I believe what you're asking is answered in there.

How can I tell if songs have DRM on them because I have switched laptops since I bought those songs and now all my old music has the same added date in iTunes? Does it show it in the songs information?

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Yes, get the file info and it will say something like protected by FairPlay.

As others have said to remove drm burn the songs off as a proper music CD then rip them back as mp3.

Apple stopped putting DRM on music some time ago and if you used iTunes Match you could re-download all of you music at a higher bitrate without DRM.

Thanks I figured it out. I created a smart playlist and searched Kind Contains Protected. I only had 1 music video that is protected. So I went looking at the user manual for my old phone and it doesn't support AAC files. That was why it didn't work. Maybe that is what you get when you buy a $90 Android phone.

Thanks I figured it out. I created a smart playlist and searched Kind Contains Protected. I only had 1 music video that is protected. So I went looking at the user manual for my old phone and it doesn't support AAC files. That was why it didn't work. Maybe that is what you get when you buy a $90 Android phone.

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Install Google play music, upload your library to Google, stream them to your phone. You also have the option to download them to the phone for offline listening.

I'm actually looking at the HTC One SV. It supports all my music formats. Can anyone tell me about HTC Sense? I don't mind if it doesn't have vanilla android because I can always download Nova Launcher, Holo Locker and Google Keyboard to make it look like a Nexus.

I'm actually looking at the HTC One SV. It supports all my music formats. Can anyone tell me about HTC Sense? I don't mind if it doesn't have vanilla android because I can always download Nova Launcher, Holo Locker and Google Keyboard to make it look like a Nexus.

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I have Sense 5 on my HTC One, and it's not bad, but I prefer vanilla Android.

I'm actually looking at the HTC One SV. It supports all my music formats. Can anyone tell me about HTC Sense? I don't mind if it doesn't have vanilla android because I can always download Nova Launcher, Holo Locker and Google Keyboard to make it look like a Nexus.

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Do a google search on Google's Music All Access. This page may be of particular interest to you:

No other phone compares in sound to the HTC One. As for updates, the AT&T version is already on the latest version of 4.3. And Sense is a pretty non-intrusive UI, unlike Touchwiz. Sense 5.5 update is supposedly on the way too. HTC is doing a great job updating the One and keeping it fresh.

Maybe but since music is very important to me an HTC One SV with Beats Audio for $230 is probably what I will go with.

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They both have the same DAC most likely, both qualcomm chips. I'd strongly recommend the nexus over the htc one sv. If you really want beats audio, there are mods on xda-developers that add it to the nexus. The sound quality of the nexus 4 is quite good, especially headphone output. There are also tons of custom roms and kernels that allow you much greater control over the EQ and sound profile compared to what htc offers.

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